Thursday, September 8, 2011

"....Although protests have continued on the streets of Bahrain every day since the Saudi-led crackdown on Pearl Roundabout last March, there has been very little coverage of the Bahraini movement in the international media.

There are several reasons for this. First, six months after the movement started, it’s clear to Bahraini activists that the United States is not in favor of any changes. The US wants to protect its interests in Bahrain—most importantly, securing the Navy’s Fifth Fleet—and avoid any direct confrontation with Saudi Arabia, which is calling the shots in Bahrain right now. The US’s posture has played a major role in marginalizing Bahrain in the eyes of the international media.

Second, the Bahraini government has successfully killed the movement’s presence internationally. It has used several tactics to achieve this, including a ban preventing international media from entering the country and ensuring that many local journalists are jailed, tortured, or fired from their jobs.....

Lastly, events in the rest of the Middle East have overshadowed the struggle on this tiny island, which has a population of around one million. For the mainstream media, the 34 people killed in this struggle, including four who died in jail after being tortured, are not as significant as the thousands being killed in Syria and Libya, regardless of the fact that this is a very large number for such a small country....."